Two years ago, peace had come to the Commonwealth. The Brotherhood of Steel had come, claiming the land for themselves and exterminating every single creature they deemed not worthy of life.
Caitlin had been asked to join. She had met Paladin Danse when she stumbled upon the old Cambridge Police Department and helped him fend off the ghouls.
Eventually, the Brotherhood soldier has asked if Cait wanted to be part of them. She refused.
Her people had been victim of one of the biggest genocides in history and she sure as hell would not participate in another.

Cait simply walked away. Her son was missing and she was determined to find him. And when she finally found her Shaun, the woman was overjoyed.
Sure, it was strange to find her baby was now 30 some odd years older than her, but she took what she could get.
Shaun had grown up safe and happy, a man of vision and determination, like his father.
Caitlin didn't agree with everything the Institute thought, especially their treatment of Synths.
But when her son had asked her to work with him, to shape the Commonwealth for generations to come, she could not say no. Shaun was the one person in the world she would not refuse.

And so, she had met X6-88. The Courser had become her partner on Father's orders. He was cold and unimpressed, but Cait liked him.

She still met up with Nick Valentine in Diamond City, and stopped by to see Hancock when she passed Goodneighbour. But a noticeable rift began to grow between the friends the more Caitlin worked for the Institute.
Eventually, friendly chats turned into the young woman begging her friends to understand her.
She couldn't lose her son. Not a second time.
And so Cait went about fighting the Brotherhood and the Railroad, tooth and nail.
With X6 and Dogmeat at her side, the strategist kept winning ground. Everything was going her way. And then Shaun told her that he was dying. Her boy was dying and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

A helpless anger took hold of her, bubbling in her stomach.
Caitlin had always been a woman of action and now she could not do anything to prevent her nightmare from happening and the dedicated mother turned her hopelessness into explosive wrath.

She annihilated the Railroad and then watched as the Prydwen went up in flames.
There was a quiet remorse as she took out the Railroad. Helping Synths was a noble goal.
But she felt nothing as the mighty airship crashed to the ground. Nick and Hancock were disappointed that she helped the Institute win.
But she had done what needed to be done.
Shaun was dead and Caitlin was not about to let his life's work go to waste.
Synths patrolled the settlements, the researchers refined their experiments and life went on.

Cait tried to reform the Institute and give them a better name on the surface. But the directors didn't want to hear about it. They tried to make her the director they wanted and taught her about robotics, computer systems and how Synths were made and programmed.
After two years, the new director realized that the Institute didn't want to change and she began making plans.
X6 had been immediately promoted upon her assignment, from courser to bodyguard of the Director. Shaun, the child-synth, was always around and kept close.
Caitlin never forgot that this wasn't truly her little boy, but she came to love him as a son nonetheless.

For Shaun, she was simply "Mommy". So when his mother told him to pack up whatever he wanted to keep with him at all times, and be discrete about it, he did just that.
Cait, unlike the former director, still regularly visited the surface, so no one batted an eye when she, X6, Shaun and their pets relayed to the surface for an adventure.
They did bat their eyes when she never came back.
This could have been the solution they were looking for.

Caitlin knew they would rejoice just until they found the little gift she had left behind for them. She tended to soak knowledge up like a sponge, and had hacked into advanced systems and robotics to make some changes to all newly produced synth. The researchers would have a rude awakening.

She still did not want to be there for it. The implants that Kellog had been given by the Institute were refined and advanced before she herself had received them.
It allowed her to keep up with X6 and made her more resilient. That was good, because Cait's psycho usage had started getting out of control.

Thinking about all the little choices and events that had led up to this, she sighed.

"What is it, ma'am?"

"Oh, nothing. Just wondered how it got this far..."

X6 was used to the Director's melancholic moods by now. They always passed soon enough. The former courser adjusted his grip on the small boy snoozing on his back. He would never admit this to anyone, but Shaun had grown on him.
Officially, he'd been the Director's personal bodyguard for the past two years, but truly it was Shaun who he was supposed to protect. And over time, X6 had come to appreciate the boy's curiosity and natural fearlessness.
Dogmeat and Mishka, the wolf from Far Harbour, were running ahead. The mutts enjoyed the exercise.

"Where are we headed, ma'am? You haven't said yet."

"Will you ever stop calling me ma'am? I'm not the director any more, you know. Just call me Cait."

X6 said nothing, just looked at her. Cait couldn't help but chuckle.
He'd never stop the formal address.

"Very well. I'm not sure where we'll end up. I just want to be out of the commonwealth before the Institute realizes how strongly they should regret teaching me this much about Synths. We'll just go west till we find a place. Nate was stationed out in Arizona. He always joked we should move there because there is nothing out there worth bombing."

"So we are going to Arizona?"

"Not sure yet. For now we're just going. Tell me when you need a break. Shaun must be getting heavy."

X6 scoffed and Caitlin swallowed a laugh. She was glad that he came with her. The former courser would keep her and Shaun safe, and despite him always saying that was his job, Cait knew better. X6 was like a brother to her, she trusted him with her life. And for Shaun, the older Synth was always like his grumpy uncle.
They were broken and flawed and far from perfect, but they were a little family, thrown together by circumstance and bonded in blood and suffering.

Cait couldn't imagine anyone else at her side.
They walked for a few more hours into the beginning night when they noticed a structure in the distance.

"It's the old Nuka-World Transit Center," Cait mentioned, spying the bottles in the darkness.
"We should check out out. If anything, we might find some valuables."

X6 agreed with her. It took another hour to reach the building, and once they were close, Cait woke her son. The boy was used to it by now, knowing X6 needed full use of both his arms in these situations.
Shaun stayed behind the adults, Mishka and Dogmeat on either side of him. He tried to mimic how X6 walked, making hardly a sound with each step.
Together, they advanced into the open space between the parking lots, weapons drawn.
But there was only silence.

The same was apparent in the Transit Centre. Silence, dust and stale air greeted them. Cait was reminded of a happier time when she saw the train.
Shaun too, was fascinated by it. Together, they sat down on the dusty leather seats and just smiled at each other.
X6 let them have their mushy moment and picked through the left-over debris in the train instead. He prodded at the controls up front, just to find they were no longer powered.
The tall Synth leaned against a pole and watch till mother and son were done enjoying an old train.
X6 would never understand what lead to him and Caitlin being friends, instead of just partners. And it was hard to put in words, but after everything they had accomplished together, he'd follow this strange woman into hell and kick Satan himself off his throne to set her upon it.

Out of the blue, every single light in dim station blared to life, blinding the three people and their pets.
The doors to the train slammed shut and the old Nuka-Cola jingle began to play. Caitlin shot up from her seat, pulling her beloved rifle from the seat beside her.
Through the dirty glass she saw a person standing behind the ticket counter. Scraggly, dirty hair fell into his grinning face.
With rage, Cait raised December's Child, called for Shaun to duck and started shooting.

Two bullets took out the window, then the train jerked to life. Cait emptied half a clip, but she couldn't see if she had hit the person before the train zoomed out of the station.

"FUCK! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"

"Mom?" Shaun peaked out from under the seat.
"What happened? Where are we going?"

"Nuka World, if this station plan can be believed," X6 responded dryly.
"We have been tricked, by the looks of it."

"I don't care what happened, I will make it back to that fucking station and I will tear that asshole's face off!" Cait was fuming and tried to relieve some stress by kicking against the trains door that naturally wouldn't budge.

Shaun, having moved past his initial concern, stared out the window and drank in the scenery zooming past him. He had never moved this fast!

Well, he figured, the relay was probably a billion times faster, but all you could see was blue light, and that got old after you did that two or three times.
Here he could see the wilderness, the broken cities that where being reclaimed by nature and- Was that Deathclaw?!

"This is so cool."

Cait was still pacing, muttering about dismembering anyone she could get her hands on when she was interrupted by the ancient intercom crackling to life.
"Looks like we bagged ourself another bunch of suckers. I only got a minute so you better listen, and listen good," the raspy voice announced.
"The name's Gage. Porter Gage. And the truth is, you've been set up. You were just exploring, maybe hoping to grab some loot. But this is a death trap. If you somehow make it through alive, I have an interesting offer for you. In the meantime, have fun and put on a good show. I'll be watching."

Static again, and then silence. Caitlin exploded.

"I WILL STICK YOUR GODDAMN OFFER SO FAR UP YOUR ASS YOU CAN TASTE IT, PORTER FUCKING GAGE! AHHHH!"

"Ma'am. Calm down. We will reach our destination, and then we will annihilate them."

It was little use. Cait did not calm down the entire ride.
She told Shaun to stay behind her and X6 at all times when they arrived, to run when she told him too, and to check the 10 MM she recently let him carry.

She remembered that the ride itself wouldn't take that long, and when the station came into view, Caitlin felt on edge. But when the door slid open, there was nothing for it. They could rot in the train or go face whatever was out there and tear it apart.

Stepping out onto the platform, the old announcement system sprang to life.

"Attention all my favourite undesirables out there. In case you haven't noticed, looks like we got ourselves some fresh meat to run the Gauntlet!"

Cait and X6 shared an uneasy look. This was not going to be easy.